The U.S. government should build highways and bridges — including the Brent Spence Bridge in Northern Kentucky — but doesn’t explicitly have a responsibility to cover medical care and living expenses for the poor and disabled, 4th District Congressional candidate Tom Wurtz said.

Wurtz, a Fort Mitchell business consultant who writes a conservative column for the Journal News in Northern Kentucky, said the federal government has long surpassed its boundaries of power. For instance, he said programs like Medicare, Medicaid and unemployment insurance go too far.

When asked if the federal government has a responsibility to the must vulnerable citizens who are poor and sick, Wurtz said “No.” (6:45).

“They’re left to charities, to the states,” he said.

But when it comes to infrastructure, including the bridge between Cincinnati and Covington, it does have a role.

“It’s an interstate highway … and the federal government should fix it,” Wurtz said. (6:00)

Wurtz is one of seven Republicans running for the Republican nomination for Congress in the 4th District that covers Northern Kentucky. Those seven are vying to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis.

Overall, Wurtz said the federal government should only take on tasks specifically mentioned in the U.S. Constitution.

“If the federal government would just stick to those things,” Wurtz said. (2:00)

However, Wurtz indicated he does believe there are exceptions to that.

Wurtz went on to say that the Supreme Court should overturn the Affordable Care Act as it considers whether it is constitutional. But judicial review — the power the Supreme Court has used to overturn acts of Congress — isn’t listed in the. Instead, Chief Justice John Marshall used the decision in Marbury v. Madison in 1803 to establish that power.

Wurtz said he believes the role of the federal government is: “I think it’s national defense, it’s making sure the states play well together, and making sure that one state isn’t having its own currency … If one state is violating the rights of another, in other words polluting, and its going to another state, the federal government gets in and makes sure that’s resolved and then they climb into their constitutional box.”